Homepod minis as speakers for REGULAR Cable TV ?

Hello all

My friend as bought 2 Homepod minis for his TV replacing is speakers bar the went dead.

We didn't succeed to have them play replacing the regular TV speakers.

Then he bought a Apple TV, still not succeeded.

Yes the homepods play well alone, the are matched up with the apple TV, good too

BUT we just wanted to listen to the cable TV... like regular news channel  CBC (Montreal here) with the Homepod playing through the TV...

It is arc hdmi plugged in the TV, goes in the Apple TV. we choose on the apple TV menu. sound through TV just like many videos on Youtube.

they say you can play your dvd, your games but they never show a rugalar channel on the cable to show you it does work??

Can Homepod minis play sound from regular cable TV channel, like CBS, TSN... ?

Thank you for reading.

i can add, that he has the fancy new remote, i guess the last Apple TV with it...

he just bought the homepods 2 month ago, and maby a month ago the Apple TV

and he has a big 55 Sony Bravia TV with the HDMI arc connector

This link explains that you can use the latest appletv 4k for your cable tv content. Go to your Apple TV’s audio settings and  select the home pods as your default audio source. That should work for you. Works for me ( I’m using Spectrum as my cable source) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209233

Thank you for the link, i will check that... but my friend just leave for Panama now...

i'll have to wait to help him. Thank you again...

You were right, it works!!

it wasn't at first, but yesterday he changes his cable tv terminal for a newer, and it worked, maybe the new one can see or have airplay?? He still has the same hdmi arc plug, so must be newer terminal.

now he can listen to any regular channel on his tv with his homepods, when he put a song on his iphone, homepods switches to music, nothing to touch 😀